The Shetland goose is a breed of domestic geese that originates in the

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Like the other breeds of

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

native to the islands, the Shetland goose is small in stature, generally weighing between 12 and 14 pounds (5 and 6 kilos). They are very hardy and exceptionally good foragers, and are able to largely sustain themselves through

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

History

The Shetland goose has been used by crofters to graze pastures. This was done to rid the grass of parasites, such as the

liver fluke Liver fluke is a collective name of a polyphyletic group of parasitic trematodes under the phylum Platyhelminthes. They are principally parasites of the liver of various mammals, including humans. Capable of moving along the blood circulation, ...

, which would prepare it for grazing by sheep.

Characteristics

Like a few other goose breeds, including the

Pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

and Cotton Patch, Shetlands are

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

at hatch (called auto-sexing in poultry nomenclature), and can be differentiated on appearance alone. Ganders have entirely white plumage, while geese have a head, neck, and upper body with gray highlights and a white underbody. They generally mate for life, and are good parents. Shetland geese lay around 30 eggs a year, that are white in colour. The Shetland goose has a shorter bill, due to its natural ability to forage. Shetlands were first exported to United States in 1997, by a farm in New York. They are not yet recognized by the American Poultry Association via admittance in the Standard of Perfection.Carol Ekarius (2007)
''Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds''
North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. . The breed is currently being studied by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, which considers populations in North America to potentially be too low to maintain sufficient genetic diversity (in North America).

History

Characteristics

References

See also